THE FOE OF AN ARROW WOUND

The Foe of an Arrow Wound is a research theatre piece that enters from a pictorial perspective. It begins with an 18th-century painting, ‘The Hacking of the Mask’, from the collection of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (East Asian Museum, Staatliche Kunst Museum, Berlin). The painting, by the Italian painter Lang Shining, was commissioned by the Qing Emperor Qianlong and is part of a series of paintings of the war to pacify Junggar. It is a combination of Western realistic modelling and traditional Chinese ‘literati painting’ aesthetics. The painting was originally housed in the Ziguangge of the Forbidden City in Beijing, but when the Eight-Power Allied Forces occupied Beijing in 1900, the painting went to Germany, where it is now stored in Berlin, exhibited from time to time in the Humboldt Forum (the former Prussian Royal Palace). 

The story of the painting gudies us to the art historians, Lang Shining, Qianlong and the former head of catering at the court. It leads to more historical facts and images of East-West interactions in modern history. It brings out the different spatial narratives of the palace, the black market and the museum.The painting is a ghostly arrow that travels through history to the present day. 

The ghostly arrow is also a probe and a fuse to penetrate, reflect, and criticise colonial evils and the pain of history. 

Get your tickets for The Foe of An Arrow Wound at the Asia-Europe Cultural Festival 2025 here (EN) or by scanning the QR code below with your WeChat app (CN):